[Original event and publication by Cuyahoga County Public Library]
Join us when author Michaël Ferrier visits to discuss his novel, Over Seas of Memory.
About the author:
Michaël Ferrier is a professor of French at Chuo University in Tokyo, Japan, and director of the Research Group Figures de l’Etranger. He is an essayist and the award-winning author of several novels in French.
Over Seas of Memory is a novel based loosely on Ferrier's life, recounting the narrator’s journey following the footsteps of his Mauritius-born grandfather, Maxime, who abruptly boarded a boat bound for Madagascar in 1922 and never returned. The novel tells a tale of discovery as well as the elusive, colorful story of Maxime’s life in Madagascar, which included a stint as an acrobat in a traveling circus and, later, as a diver and artist on marine expeditions. Maxime’s story is one of adventure but also romance. He falls in love with a refined young Pauline Nuñes, Ferrier’s grandmother, whose well-to-do family of Indian merchants owns a hotel famous for playing the latest music—including American jazz—and throwing popular dances and parties. These personal stories are woven with the island’s history, including its period as a Vichy-governed territory at the center of what was termed “Project Madagascar,” the Nazi plan to relocate Europe’s Jewish population to the island.
As Ferrier interlaces his family’s intimate story with the larger story of colonialism’s lasting and complicated impact—including the racial and ethnic divisions it fomented—he engages with critical issues in contemporary France concerning national and cultural identity.
Books will be available for purchase and signing courtesy of Mac's Backs - Books on Coventry.
